http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/31/akmal-shaikh-china-right-to-life The most fundamental of all human rights is the right to life itself, and it should be the first item in the universal declaration of human rights. Then arguments about Akmal Shaikh's mental state and pleas for "clemency" would be totally irrelevant to the case (Fury as China refuses to pardon death row Briton, 30 December). As your editorial rightly says, it's nonsense for the Chinese government to claim that no one has the right to comment on Chinese judicial sovereignty. I consider that I have not only the right, but the duty to do so. What is surely needed is an international Sidney Silverman to lead a campaign to end this blot on human civilisation for ever.
Frank Jackson
Harlow, Essex
• I utterly deplore the execution of Akmal Shaikh, but perhaps it may give our government cause for thought in extraditing a mentally ill man to the US.
Ann Harper
Charlbury, Oxfordshire |